Biography
Barbara Wall currently serves on the board of directors of Gannett Co., Inc., having retired from the company in 2020 in the role of chief legal and operating officer. Wall is chair of the American Press Institute and sits on the boards of Freedom Forum, the News Media Alliance and Helen Keller International.
Wall has written and lectured on free speech issues, intellectual property rights and the legal issues associated with the digital transformation of the media industry.
Wall is past chair of the ABA Forum on Communications Law and founded the ABA Women in Communications Law Committee. In 2020, the ABA Forum on Communications Law honored her with its Champion of the First Amendment award. In 2021, she was the first woman to receive the Media Law Resource Center’s William J. Brennan Defense of Freedom Award.
Wall has taught media law as an adjunct professor at American University and George Washington University and served on the faculty of Practicing Law Institute’s Communications Law program for over 25 years. She earned a bachelor’s degree and law degree at the University of Virginia.